Gigoit: Helping You Choose to Reuse

An acronym for "Garbage In, Garbage Out," Gigoit is a new web-based community with the simple and admirable goal of keeping more stuff out of landfills. Working on a platform similar to The Freecycle Network, Gigoit wants to make it easier for people to both give or get unwanted usable items in their communities. All the information is centralized right on the site, and can be searched and perused by anyone without registration or login to the site; just type in what you're looking for, a search radius and a zip code, and you're off and running. By eschewing the mailing list model and making access to everything that needs a new home, the developers of the site hope they've cut out an extra step that keeps some people from freecycling or otherwise insuring their stuff ends up finding a new owner rather than getting a one-way ticket to the dump. Once an item has been picked up, the giver takes it off the site and it disappears, without having to post a message for everyone else on the site to have to read and filter through. Individual users only receive messages related to their own transactions, and RSS feeds allow users to quickly access the latest items in their area. Users aren't limited to certain geographical areas -- you can access items from all over the country on the same site. The site is still in beta, and has a forum to discuss feature requests, bugs and questions about the site and its model, and everything is a work in progress. They'll be updating their zip code database each month, and hope to spread internationally if the site proves successful. Check out their website for more, and see if you can't unload some unused (but still usable) stuff while you're there. ::Gigoit via ::Green Options and ::Hugg (KBestOliver)